How Big A Deal Is US Shale? -- September 15, 2019

Twenty years ago if there had been a similar attack on Saudi Arabia, we would be talking about $200 oil.

Yesterday, after the attack, "we" were talking about $100 oil.

When the futures market opened this evening (6:00 p.m. EDT), WTI spiked 12%, jumping almost $6/bbl, trading over $61/bbl.

Now, at 11:53 p.m. CT, WTI is up 8.95% at $59.77.

$59.77? LOL. Are you kidding?

$59.77.

I talked to my wife who is out in California: at worse they expect gasoline to go up 25 cents/gallon. Anyone remember the OPEC embargo?

That's still not high enough to "save" Saudi Arabia.

It may not even be enough to save some US shale operators.

It's still well below what Harold Hamm thinks is a fair price for oil.

This is really amazing.

All because of the US shale revolution.

Had the Keystone XL pipeline not been killed by President Obama, the events in Saudi Arabia would have been even less concerning for the global oil market. But Obama knew better. What a doofus.

I recall a great movie of some years ago, The Manchurian Candidate or something like that.

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Conspiracy Theory -- They're Watching Me

My wife is out of town. When she's out of town the television is not turned on at all.

At all.

Except for NASCAR.

I was away from the house all day (or better said, away from the 1,000-square-foot hovel we call an apartment all day) -- attending a water polo tournament involving our oldest granddaughter. On the drive home I checked the smart phone, googling "NASCAR today."

Wow, the race coverage was to begin at 6:00 p.m. I would be able to watch all of it.

I turned on the television about 5:30 p.m. and got ready to watch the race. Volume was off. I saw someone singing the national anthem. I saw a crawler identifying someone as the race marshall.

I don't recall seeing the start of the race. I fell asleep. I woke up at 8:25 p.m. CT or thereabouts. The television set was still on.

But.

Channel 31, NASCAR race, was frozen. I saw a still "photo" of three cars rounding a curve. But no movement. The screen was frozen. We get a thousand channels through Spectrum Cable. To the best of my knowledge, scrolling through the entire 1,000 stations -- some hyperbole, here, but not much -- I couldn't access three. One of the three out of the 1,000 stations: the NASCAR race.

LOL.

One thousand channels, and of the three that are "knocked out," one of them is NASCAR.

Fortunately I was able to stream the event on my laptop just in time to see the winner, M. Truex, Jr., drive into the winner's circle.

Bummer.

Later, 11:00 p.m. CT: all channels are now working normally.